The Rudolf Steiner Archive

41. The Threefold Structure and the Intellectuals

[ 1 ] There is no doubt that among the so-called intellectuals of Europe there is a sufficiently large number of people who would see something fruitful in the path that is to be attempted from social chaos to a reorganization through the threefold structure of the social organism, if only they would first allow themselves to adopt the basic ideas of this attempt. It has often been said here that those who support these ideas cannot believe that what has been presented so far contains irrefutable truths down to the last detail. Certainly, some things will prove to be in need of improvement once more circles of competent and knowledgeable people work together seriously and with practical sense. But the social school of thought that expresses itself in the demand of the threefold structure is formed from the unbiased developmental necessities of humanity in our time, so that what is currently needed lives in it and through the neglect of which the problems in which we live have arisen.

[ 2 ] Whoever as an intellectual compares what was before the onset of the world catastrophe with what is demanded for recovery by the idea of threefolding, must realize how this idea is a reproduction of what the facts themselves express. But only a few are able to make this comparison and to consider this idea in any depth.

[ 3 ] The reason for this fact lies in the way our schools have educated these intellectuals. In the course of recent times, the pursuit of science has taken on a form that has virtually undermined independent, comprehensive thinking. Those who have been forced to pursue a profession that requires higher education have been forced to acquire specialized knowledge that does not give them any stimulus to consider their "subject" in the context of real life. As a recipient of knowledge in a specialized field, one can even become an important inventor, a trailblazer, without acquiring the ability through this field to see through a larger area of reality in sustainable thoughts. Those who learn to think through chemistry are led to understand the significance of the thoughts that live in this subject for the whole of human life. For the thoughts of all areas of reality are connected; and if one has those of one area, they awaken an understanding of life in its entirety. If one is merely a chemist without having learned to think in chemistry, one can be as incapable of judgment as a child in the face of the demands of life.

[ 4 ] The understanding of the basic ideas of the threefold structure depends on the ability to penetrate social facts by thinking. You can do this at the same time, whether you have learned to think in a summarizing way in chemistry, biology or politics. But you will not achieve this understanding if you have only practiced politics as a voter or even as a statesman in the same way that people have become accustomed to practicing chemistry or biology in schools in more recent times.

[ 5 ] Whoever sees through these circumstances will recognize the part played by the misguided intellectual life in the decline of European civilization. And he will only be able to expect recovery from a transformation of this spiritual life.

[ 6 ] But this is least thought of. For in the circle of intellectuals, the present lack should be felt above all. For example, there should be an urge to grasp the way of thinking through which the threefold structure arrives at its ideas, instead of simply superficially comparing these ideas with one's own opinion and, if they do not agree with it, rejecting them. If one has not trained oneself to think in a summarizing way, this is, however, the only position one can take towards a system of ideas that owes its origin to such summarizing thinking about genuine realities.

[ 7 ] There are probably people who say that those intellectuals who are of mature age today will no longer find themselves ready for the necessary self-knowledge. They are too accustomed to thoughtless specialization. We have to wait for the youth. But a large part of this youth bears the fruits of misguided spirituality in the state of its soul. This part of the youth will only be persuaded to repent when it will see from the complete disintegration of social life how necessary it would have been in the past to think in a summarizing way that draws on reality. And the part of the youth that does not need such proof is small.

[ 8 ] Should we therefore let the work rest? No, it must be regarded as an iron duty in the present emergency. Powerfully call out into the world those ideas from which we expect recovery. Perhaps at first there will only be a few who will meet them with understanding. But these few must exist. They will preach to deaf ears as long as complete disintegration has not yet arrived. But the closer it approaches, the more of the others will reveal their helplessness; the more the day will come when it will be seen that the few are needed. Until then, many politicians will still be pushed into leading positions with the old party slogans; many old "practitioners" will stumble along the well-trodden tracks through the disrupted economic life; many editorialists will rave about the disunity of foreign countries, which the home country should exploit, or also about the fact that the war would not have come about if relations with this or that country had been established in the way they were - after the war.

[ 9 ] Unperturbed by all this, those who are able to recognize the fruitfulness of the threefold idea must work to spread it. For only through this work will it be possible to ensure that enough spiritually enlightened people are available at the right moment. Spiritual enlightenment in all areas, which leads to comprehensive thinking, which leads to insight into the real power of this thinking: this is necessary. It alone can be built upon; but it can also be built upon.